BLACKSBURG – The Virginia Tech Transportation Institute has teamed with Blacksburg Transit to create a new mobile app that could make waiting for the bus an act of the past and help the transit authority reduce fuel usage.

The new software app – dubbed BT4U Mobile, still in test stages and set to go fully public at the start of the fall 2014 semester at Virginia Tech – would eventually allow Blacksburg Transit to provide exact bus arrival time notices at all stops for riders, and eventually move the carrier from a rigid operation with set schedules to a more fluid operation, adding or removing buses to meet real-time rider demand flows.

Riders also will be able to “ping” ahead using the app to request service from pick up to final destination, allowing the transit to create instant better-planned routes with other riders who have similar stops. As the transit improves tracking and accommodates riders’ needs via GPS tracking, it can remove or add bus routes to meet low or peak demand periods. Likewise, it can sub smaller buses for larger ones, or vice versa.